ASUS signs off the AMD socket AM3+ platform with a motherboard that's built to last, the TUF Sabertooth 990FX R3.0, its third TUF series motherboard based on the AMD 990FX chipset. The board could be the ideal upgrade for AMD FX processor users wanting to hold on to their builds a few years longer, as it features cutting-edge connectivity, such as four 10 Gb/s USB 3.1 ports (including a type-C port), eight additional 5 Gb/s USB 3.0 ports (of which four are via headers), a 20 Gb/s M.2 slot with NVMe support, and the very latest VRM innovations ASUS made for the TUF series.

The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, and uses a 10-phase VRM to condition it for the CPU. The board supports 220W TDP AMD FX-9000 series CPUs. The CPU socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, and the AMD 990FX northbridge. Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots, of which three are wired to the 990FX chip, and run at x16/NC/x16 or x16/x8/x8 depending on the way they're populated; while the fourth slot is wired to the SB950 southbridge, and runs at gen 2.0 x4. Storage connectivity includes five SATA 6 Gb/s ports besides the M.2 slot. 8-channel HD audio and gigabit Ethernet (Intel i211V controller) make for the rest of it. The board is driven by UEFI BIOS, and features Windows 10 certification. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Nothing Asus can do to change that. 990FX is PCI-e 2.0, not that anything can saturate the pair of 16x 2.0 slots and DDR3 is on the CPU's. This is just a basic update that add a feature set that isn't available on other boards.

peche said:TUF Sabertooth board with no thermal armor? WTF Asus, thats the main feature of TUF boards and you take it out this board?

Regards,

I think they were doing it on a budget side. I mean, AM3+ is on its way out, there is no real point in going too expensive as no one would buy it otherwise. But they want to milk the Sabertooth branding a bit.

RejZoR said:I think they were doing it on a budget side. I mean, AM3+ is on its way out, there is no real point in going too expensive as no one would buy it otherwise. But they want to milk the Sabertooth branding a bit.

so much people use the older FX and AM3+ platform as a cheap alternative on heavy tasks or dumb computers, so i guess still on the budget for several people, if asus were in the point for budget boards i guess they should use another sub Family or model for a board, for example Deluxe family or "A" boards, TUF its one of their expensive boards sub family

Are you sure? I mean, I know they change Rev 1.0 to 1.1 or 2.0, but if you look at the boards they look pretty much identical. Where Sabertooth was dramatically different between revisions, mostly all the shielding, extra VRM cooling fans etc...